4 Wheels 4 Girls

June 17, my family went to see the Athabasca Glacier. When we first got there, I saw a mini lake. I don’t think it had a name but it was still pretty. [Editor’s note: These were the headwaters of the Sunwapta River, bound for the arctic ocean.] Then, beyond the lake was a huge chunk of ice. I don’t mean huge like the size of my head, I mean huge like 20 football fields. Maybe even 30. Yeah, probably 30. So anyway, Dad said it was a glacier. Athabasca Glacier.

We took a short hike up a hill so we could get closer to it. Ellie, Greta, and I ran ahead, and Ana hung back with the parents. We beat them by about five minutes, and it seemed like forever, but finally they came. We walked a little farther, out to where the rope was. The rope was there to stop people from walking out onto the glacier. There were signs all over telling the stories of deaths or terrible injuries from falling in crevases or the ice breaking and people falling into the freezing cold water. But don’t worry, we didn’t go anywhere near the ice or the river flowing underneath it. We were on land that was about 20 to 50 feet from any ice. We were safe, and we had a nice time.

So when we got back down the hill, we raced back to the RV. I was the first one to touch it. When we were all loaded up, we parked across the road in an RV slot in the parking lot for the Icefields Visitor Center and hopped out. We all walked up the stairs to the building. It looked huge, but when we stepped inside, it seemed tiny. I don’t know why.

Right now, Dad is reminding me what we learned in there. Dad says that a glacier is an ice river, and the Athabasca glacier is about 4 miles long. He says the glacier moves down the mountain a few inches per day. So, in the picture below, the glacier on the left is 4 miles long and moving slowly down the mountain. The steep parts are like an ice waterfall, and they are called icefalls. In the visitor center, there was this big 3D map that Dad told us to look at. He said that on the top of all the mountains was a huge bowl-like valley. That valley was filled with ice and snow. It is called the Columbia Icefield. It is so big that it covers all the mountains around it and drops a dozen glaciers down from it. Athabasca Glacier is one of them. So do you remember how big I said the glacier was? 30 football fields? Well, the Columbia Icefield is about 125 square miles. So that would be about 60,000 football fields! I told you it was huge!

Athabasca glacier flows down from Columbia Icefield in the left valley, Dome glacier flows down the right. Snowdome is up on top, in between them. The icefield extends back on the other side of the mountains.

So Dad says that there’s something called the Continental Tri-vide, or apex, or something like that. I think it sounds better than the triple continental divide, don’t you? Well, on the Continental Tri-vide, if a raindrop or snowflake falls on it, it can go to either the Pacific, Atlantic, or Arctic Ocean. There’s a place on the Columbia Icefield called the Snowdome. The top of the Snowdome is where the apex of North America is located.

We had a fun time at the visitor center and to make it better, as we were leaving, we each got a Canada National Parks passport, and a butterscotch-flavored candy cane.

With a Mountie at the Icefield Center

June 17, we went to Sunwapta Pass. We took some pictures there. We saw this really cool mountain. It had snow on it and I imagined that I was sliding down that mountain. There was a really cool waterfall next to it, but we didn’t take a picture of it.

Crossing Sunwapta Pass. That is the North Saskatchewan River down in the valley.

At Sunwapta Pass, if a raindrop fell on my head and bounced off it could run down to either of the oceans. But not to the Pacific Ocean. If it ran to the river behind me in the picture it would go to the Atlantic Ocean, but if it went to the other side of the mountain it would go to the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean is at the top of the world.

We found a really cool waterfall. It had three or four waterfallish things at the top and then joined into one waterfall. My dad also saw a big pile of snow along the side of the waterfall that we didn’t realize was there. We got our candy sticks and watched it go down. It was pouring down. Daddy says it was called Tangle Creek Falls.

Tangle Creek Falls

We left the Icefields Parkway. I was sad.

We saw a grizzly bear. Of course, we knew not to get out of the car. Somebody else did get out of their car, but not in this family, and he went close to take some pictures.

The grizzly bear was light brown. We thought it might be a black bear because black bears can be brown, but usually they are black. The grizzly bear didn’t roar. I thought it would roar because the guy was getting too close. The grizzly bear walked closer to the guy and started to dig. I thought the bear was cool. I thought the guy was not cool. We sat and watched the bear.

Seeing our first Grizzly Bear

I like seeing animals because they have different brains than us. I imagine I am like those animals. I imagine I am eating grass. Seeing a moose the first time was really exciting. Seeing the grizzly was more exciting. Seeing deer is not as exciting because we have seen a ton of deer.

On June 17th, after leaving Lake Louise, we took a nice drive on the Icefields Parkway on our way to Jasper National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL.

There was still ice on the surface of Bow Lake

First we saw Bow Lake. It was a frosty blue-green, with mountains all around it. I thought it was amazing, but then Dad said we’d see another lake that was ten times as beautiful, Peyto Lake.

When we got there, we got our hiking shoes on ’cause there was a little hike we had to take before we could reach the lake. When we did, I was SPEACHLESS. It wasn’t that big, but the color and scenery around it was gorgeous. It was honestly the brightest blue I had ever seen in my life; it made my blue sweatshirt look like a lame excuse for a bright blue. There were lots of mountains and glaciers surrounding it.

No photo can capture the actually color of Peyto Lake

I marveled at the lake for awhile, and then suddenly I heard a thundering noise that no one seemed to hear except my family. At first it was just a loud, distant BOOM! But then I heard snapping, cracking, tumbling. It was an avalanche, tearing down trees and scraping rocks as it barreled down the mountain! Unfortunately we couldn’t see it since it was on the other side of the mountain, but it was so cool to hear it. SO cool. The thundering sound went on for a long time.

We kept driving and suddenly we saw another RV parked on the side of the road, obviously looking at something. Once we pulled over to join them, we saw that it was… a black bear! We watched it eat for a little bit and then drove on our way.

A Black Bear walking along the Icefields Parkway

Some time later, we saw a whole MOB of cars parked at the side of the road. This time it was a grizzly bear!!! Some fool got out of his car, actually a few fools, and they were trying to take a picture of it. They were SO CLOSE to it, within twenty feet of it. I wanted to shout, “DUDE(S)! THAT”S A GRIZZLY BEAR! HE’S GONNA ATTACK YOU!!!” But of course I didn’t. I let them suffer the consequences.

It was such a beautiful drive!

On June 16 we went Lake Louise. When we got out of the RV it was raining. What a good time to go on a hike. It was cold, miserable, and annoying.

We walked and saw orange fish in the water. We saw one at first. We had to cross a bridge to get across. We walked along side the steam for a couple of minutes and then we reached Lake Louise.

Lake Louise was green and blue together and it made the brightest color you could imagine. We looked for fish in the lake but we had no luck. After that we took turns taking pictures of the parents.

At Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada

There were steps so you could go and touch the water. It was not as cold as I thought it would be. We saw some ice on the lake. It was surrounded by mountains. We saw a glacier at the other end of the lake. We also saw a lodge. I wanted to go and get warm. We looked at the lake one more time and headed back.

We saw a ton of fish in the creek. One looked dead. We tried to get our pictures but it looked like just the stream. After that we went back and got in the warm RV.

June 16, we went to a library in Banff. We sat down to do time4learning. I brought my math book in and did some math. I got up to take some breaks and Ellie and Stella did sometimes, too. We didn’t have enough time to read. I just looked at the pictures in books. Then I went back to my math. I would do two pages, take a break, do two more pages, and then take a break. It seemed like we would never leave. But we finally did.

Hanging out in Banff, Alberta

On June 15 we drove though Kootenay Canadian National Park. We drove along the forest and saw countless deer. Their fur was sort of stripey and looked like it was rubbed the wrong way. We thought that a plastic bag was some kind of critter.

We were driving and then Mommy said, look there’s a bear! We all turned our heads to see the bear. It was pitch black. You could see the light on it’s fur. After that we saw more and more deer. Everyone was so busy looking for critters.

I looked up and saw something up ahead in the middle of the road. Was it a dog or a horse, or a deer? Then I said, what is that up ahead? When Daddy looked up he said that it was a moose. When we got closer we saw that is was tall dark brown and had long fragile looking legs. Up ahead we saw a car. Did it see the moose? It was coming fast. Then it came to a halt. Good. The moose looked like it was licking the road. Then it looked up and trotted into the forest.

We kept on driving and me and Stella said at the same time, MOOSE! We watched the moose look at us and then trot away. We saw more and more deer. Then daddy said pretty loudly, MOOSE! We watched as the moose ran gracefully into the woods. We think it was a male moose but we didn’t know.

After that we left Kootenay Park. I hope I will see more moose.

June 15, we went to go to Canada. We saw lots of horses and cows on the way. We went to the drive-through place to see if we have any weapons or anything. We got some Canada flags, with a leaf on them. Then we drove into Canada, where Daddy and Mommy had their honeymoon. It was a country I’ve never been to. A lot of people in Canada speak french. The guy at the border spoke french. In Georgia a lot of people speak english. There’s a lot of RVs in Canada. And dandelions. The gas in Canada is a lot lower. Dad says this is because the price in Canada is per liter, not per gallon. Mama says it is more expensive in Canada. A lot of people are riding their bikes in Canada and a lot of people ride their bikes in Georgia. There’s more pine trees in Canada. And moose.

Canada!

June 12th, we arrived at a campground. It was called the Crooked Tree Motel and RV Park. We discovered that there was a playground and an indoor pool. The indoor pool was what got my attention. I asked if we could go to the pool and the parents said yes, but we kept not going. Finally, it was time to eat dinner, so we ate and I wondered if we were ever going to go to the pool. So I asked again. This time, they told us to get our swim-suits on. I already had mine on so I grabbed a towel from the cabinet and pulled my goggles out of the swim-bag. I was ready.

An indoor pool, what a special treat during a cold, rainy week!

Eventually, Dad made it out the door and we all walked over to the pool. We got inside the building and Dad sat down on a bench with his computer. Ellie, Ana, and I went over to the other side of the pool, where the steps were, so that we could get in the water in a different way than just jumping in; a way that went more slowly. I stepped onto the first step, so only my feet were in. It didn’t feel very cold on only my feet, but I stepped down two more times, and it was now a little over my knees, and it was getting colder. I stepped down again, and by then, it was up to my thighs. It was starting to get really cold. I shivered. Meanwhile, Ana was coming in behind me, and I noticed Ellie stepping out of the water. She walked over to the ladder that led into the deep-end, and she was about to jump in. I threw my goggles on and yelled, “I’ll be the first one all the way in!” ,and held my breath and went under.

After I’d gotten used to the temperature, Ellie, Ana, and I swam around for a while. We practiced doing handstands and front-flips and back-flips. Ellie and I did a competition: Who could do flips the fastest? First, we did front-flips, and Ellie won. We did it again and we tied. We tried it one last time and we tied again. Then we did back-flips. I won the first one. Then I won the second one by about two thirds of a second, and won the last. It was really fun.

Then I swam into the center of the deep-end, where it was the deepest. I hovered at the surface of the water, getting ready for my experiment. I had never in my life been able to touch the deepest part of a pool before. Not with my hands, at least. And only, like, once or twice with my feet. But that pool wasn’t very deep. This one was. And I have never been very good at holding my breath for a long time, even though I’m on swim-team and have been for three years. So I took in a deep breath and went under. I pushed with so much force that immediately my ears popped and my feet thudded into the ground. Quickly, so I wouldn’t take in a gallon of water, I shoved off the bottom of the pool, felt my ears unpop, and was back up at the surface. Ellie had been watching me and she smiled at me. She’s always been really good at holding her breath for a long time and being able to do things like swimming all the way across the pool. But even Ellie doesn’t beat Ana. Ana can swim to the bottom of a pool and touch the bottom with her hands in THIRTEEN FEET!! Isn’t that amazing!? Even if you don’t, I think it is.

So anyway, I was grinning ear-to-ear when I came up. And guess what? I had to teach Ellie how to do it until she finally got it! And then guess what? I touched the bottom with my hands, even though I swallowed some water on the way back up!

The next day, we went to the pool again. This time, Greta came. We swam around the pool and had a lot of fun. We played this game where we had to swim around and do fancy things to get letters from Greta. Then, when we’d gotten all the letters we needed, we’d go to her and she’d tell us to unscramble them. We would, and we’d find a word. Then we’d have another activity and we’d get another word. We’d keep doing that until we made a sentence. It was pretty fun. It was really mysterious… and it was called the Quest. Then, sadly, it was time to leave.

We came back again the next day, and had fun just swimming randomly. We had to leave early, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I was happy when I realized that it meant going to get huckleberry milkshakes. We had a great night, and I slept great, too.

On June 12 we stayed at a campground in Hungry Horse Montana. We stayed there for two days.

The campground also had a great little playground

Me Stella and Ana got ready after dinner to go to the pool. When we got there we went to the stairs to get in. Stella was the first one to get in the pool, and then Me and Ana came in together. We played tag and we did handstands. We also saw a hair tie at the bottom of the pool and i swam down and got it. We took turns letting the hair tie sink and then going and getting it. The water was cold at first but when you got used to it it is warm. We played for along time until daddy said five more minutes girls. We swam and swam until it was time to go. I shared my towel with Ana because she forgot to bring hers. We walked back wishing we could go back the next day.

And we did go back the next day. We swam, swam, swam the next day. After that we took a shower.